10 January 2020
The picture Jeremiah paints when he states that God is like a Potter and we, His people, are the clay, is a very apt description of our relationship with God. Every day, He moulds and shapes us into His very own image – a vessel of honour for the Master’s use.
He diligently waits at the potter’s wheel ready to guide the clay – our lives. All we have to do is yield to the process. To make anything out of clay, you need soft tender clay to work with. It takes time, as it is certainly not an easy process, especially when there is a lump of hardened clay.
When we look at each other, we value the quality and usefulness of the person’s abilities, expertise and education. Even where he stays or what family he comes from. But God – He determines a person’s true value by the condition of his heart.
1 Samuel 16:7 Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
Everyday of my life I can feel how the Potter softens my clay as He continuously pours water of ‘complete dependency upon Him’ over me. As a lump comes up – an area of fear, anger, unforgiveness, doubt or unbelief – more water is poured out as He works the clay to soften it. It took God twenty years to soften Jacob’s heart and forty years for Moses’s heart, until the Word of God says – Moses was the meekest man on earth.
Hebrews 3:15 Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.
We all have a choice – we can soften our hearts and humble ourselves to His works in us, or we can harden our hearts to Him because of the circumstances we face. The best way is to yield yourself to what God is busy doing with your life. It should be our highest priority to keep our hearts with diligence (Proverbs 4:23).
We have to keep our hearts soft and tender.
Ephesians 5:21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
James 4:7 So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.
Any form of pride and/or rebellion is like a kiln. Its fire instantly hardens the clay. A hardened heart cannot hear God’s voice, or be led by the Holy Spirit. To maintain a tender and humble heart depends on your honesty before God and yourself. If you are honest with yourself that you are self-seeking, that you are addicted to taking the credit and that you are building your own prideful legacy – run to the Cross of Jesus and repent and lay down these dark building stones that are used to build a wall between you and God. You will think you are busy with the things of God, but you are actually just busy building your own empire. We have to search our hearts.
The only legacy we need to leave, is JESUS.
There is only one thing that Jesus seeks to do with us on the Potter’s wheel. His focus is not on making us more powerful and famous, but to continually transform us into His image and likeness.
Are you willing to be pliable – to lay down your life for the King? Are you willing to be like clay in His hands?
On the wheel – with His hands on us – are the times that we are the closest to Him. Don’t run from the process. Rather thank Him!
And then, when I look into your eyes, I can recognise and see tender, soft clay. A life surrendered, a beautiful masterpiece in progress.
Thank You Jesus, that You are so intensely involved in our lives.
I am still in the USA and want to thank everyone that has been so good to me. You embraced me and are being so kind to me.
I thank Jesus that He is really doing something new in 2020. The masterpiece takes on a new form – His image and His likeness in us.
Bless you my dear friend
Retah and family
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